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A.C.M.E.
A.C.M.E. History A.C.M.E. (alternatively spelled Acme or ACME) is probably one of the most unusual companies of all time. It was founded in 1886 in Minneapolis by the businessman and notorious prankster Marvin Acme. While at first it seems obvious that the company is named after its founder, in fact Marvin Acme renamed himself Acme after its foundation adopting his company's name. Prior to this his name was Marvin Sears. In fact, Acme is both a Greek word meaning peak, zenith or prime and an acronym meaning either "American Company Making Everything" or, which is the generally accepted version, "A Company that Makes Everything" - a name that perfectly resembles the company's policy. A.C.M.E. was a rather inconspicuous but more or less successful mail-order business until Marvin Acme decided to move its seat from Minneapolis to Fairfield, New York State, in 1893. This would let Acme slide more and more into public attention as its range of goods slowly began to deviate from normality. The establishment of the ACME subdivision "Acme Jewelery Co." in 1922 and the invention of "Acme Sodium Bicarbonate" in 1936 were major successes and would be the forerunners of the wide and unusual range of goods that would soon be characteristic for A.C.M.E. In the following years the company's incomes skyrocketed. Acme turned into a conglomerate which produced everything and anything imaginable, no matter how elaborate or extravagant. The label A.C.M.E. represented a tremendous variety of outlandish and downright dangerous products that, some say, tend to fail catastrophically at the worst possible times. Goods such as the ACME American Wrought Anvil, the ACME Extra Strong Blackpowder, the ACME Jumbo Disguise Kit, the ACME Electrical Chair and the ACME "Learn How To Box" manual are just some of the company's major successes. But while some of their products left much to be desired, Acme delivery service, on the other hand, were second to none; Many customers praised (or, in some cases, cursed) Acme's ability to deliver the requested products in mere seconds after dropping the order into a mailbox or entering it on a website. Only a heartbeat and the customer had the (usually dangerous) product in his hands - or on top of him, as it sometimes happened with the delivery of anvils. With the markets exploding, Acme introduced several subdivisions. Most importantly, there was the semi-independent Ajax Corporation: founded in 1937, Ajax's range of goods was more down-to-earth in nature, such as paint, bubblegum, and light bulbs, with its most successful departments being Ajax Ghost Exterminators, Ajax Locksmiths, Ajax Lost and Found and Ajax Broadcasting Company. Other subdivisions that were closer to A.C.M.E. itself - both regarding its management and its unusual policy - included ACME Labs, ACME Detective Agency, the already mentioned ACME Jewelery Co, the V.I.L.E. spy network, ACME Rocket-Powered Products, Inc. and ACME Cola, a knock-off version of the much more popular Buzz Cola. In the 1930s and '40s Marvin Acme used his quickly growing wealth to support the film studios of Vinewood by funding Toontown - a settlement housing the Toons, a new generation of surreally comic-like looking anthropomorphic creatures working as actors. With its connection to Toontown A.C.M.E. became a major contractor for many Toons, both in the filming business and in private life. Acme's most important Toon customers include Woody Woodpecker, Elmer J. "Egghead" Fudd, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester J. Pussycat, Speedy Gonzales, Roger Rabbit and, by far ACME's best customer, Wile E. Coyote. Alas, Toontown would not only be a passion of the prank-loving Marvin Acme it would also be his death. In 1947 he was murdered by the super-villain Judge Doom. Following Acme's death, the company was taken over by an ominous and somewhat villainous businessman known only as Mr. Chairman or The Chief. Under The Chief A.C.M.E. influence spread even more turning it more and more into a major player in virtually every branch of economy. In the 1950s the first ACME Catalog appeared, starring the slogan "Redefining pain for over 60 years!" In 1974 ACME finished the construction of the ACME Tower just outside Fairfield, making it not only the highest building in the USA but also the company's new headquarter. In the following decades a company-controlled city called Acme Acres grew around ACME Tower housing many hundreds of ACME employees - both human and Toon. But Acme would soon exceed the zenith of its success: inspired by the "Coyote vs. Acme" case of 1990(the opening statement of the case can be read here), a wave of accusations hit A.C.M.E. damaging the company while the harsh international competition was no advantage, either. In a final attempt to defend its place as the world's leading expert on, well, anything A.C.M.E. went public - but it was too late. The financial crisis of 2008 would deal the deathblow to the crumbling Acme Corporation which would be divided among its rivals. Most importantly, the CEO of BMW, Michel Beloit, bought up large parts of his former competitor and used it as a basis to form the industry tycoon and the next century's arguably most successful company, Saeder-Krupp, in 2010. However, Acme wasn't extinct: a few hundred people from Acme Acres used their company's remaining resources to create the stellar colony of Acmetropolis. And thus A.C.M.E. will always be remembered as the world's number one provider of exclusive goods such as trebuchets, oversized anvils, giant rubber bands and explosive tennis balls - because Acme indeed is a company that makes just about everything. Photographs Catalogue of A.C.M.E. Products.Category:Companies